Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
A shared Priority Services Register (PSR) will finally launch at the end of March in what is being billed as “the biggest single breakthrough in PSR data sharing in over a decade”.
Utilities are obligated to hold a PSR which outlines the needs of their vulnerable customers, enabling them to target support in the event of an emergency.
For years energy and water companies have talked about the need to share the data contained within their respective PSRs, but they have been constrained by issues such as consent for the information to be shared.
Yet vulnerability expert Steve Crabb has revealed that having overcome these obstacles, a shared PSR will become a reality at the end of this month, with distribution network operators (DNOs) and water companies across England and Wales combining their respective datasets.
Speaking at Utility Week’s Customer Summit in Birmingham on Wednesday (22 March) Crabb, who has been advising on the project, said: “There are 22 water companies and DNOs in total and there are 37 combinations of those companies serving customers.
“As things stand, 35 of those 37 will be sharing PSR data on 31 March of this year, or within a couple of weeks of that target deadline. And that’s thanks to astounding hard work by the companies, the two industry bodies and also the two regulators and really it’s the biggest single breakthrough in PSR data sharing in over a decade.”
Crabb further explained that only new customers joining a company’s PSR will be included within the new scheme, rather than organisations combining all their historic data.
He added: “So we’re not talking about historic data at this point in time. I think most water companies would really struggle to handle that volume of data if we turned the tap on straightaway.
“So it’s new data, but many energy networks regard any recontact with a customer who’s already on the PSR, that’s reverified, as new data. So it’s not just going to be people identified for the first time.”
The road to a shared PSR
Electricity North West and United Utilities began trialling a shared PSR in 2018, conducting a two-way data-sharing pilot in which they gained explicit consent from their mutual customers to share their PSR data.
Elsewhere in October 2020 Auriga Services launched a nationwide portal allowing utilities to use their software to keep track of their PSR data.
Meanwhile in July 2021 UK Power Networks and Thames Water announced that they were sharing data on vulnerability, later expanding the scheme by bringing other organisations into the partnership.
Most recently, the Energy Networks Association unveiled a new website allowing consumers to more easily sign up to the PSR.
The site, designed to offer a “one-stop-shop approach” for those with additional needs, was launched with the backing of all six DNOs and all four gas network companies.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.